The Scale of the Universe

My sister pointed me to the Scale of the Univserse by Cary Huang. Definitely impressive to see scale proportions visualized like that. (But the illustration snob in me admits I’d see these illustrations done by someone like Julia Rothman)

(thanks Charlotte)

Vintage 3-D GIFs

The New York Public Library has created a tool they’re calling the Stereogranimator that lets users create animated 3-D GIFs from the photos in the archive. Here’s an example. Amazing.

(via murketing)

OFFSET 2012

Offset 2012 looks like it’s going to be a fantastic conference. The speaker list is impressive: Michael and Paula from Pentagram, Shepard Fairey (OBEY), Conor Harrington, Johnny Kelly, Seymour Chwast, Droga5, Kesselskramer, Jessica Hische, Evan Hecox and many more. And the event takes place in beautiful Dublin, what’s not to love?

OFFSET2012, March 9-11 in Dublin, Ireland

Maddie On Things

This photoblog called Maddie On Things makes me want to have a dog.

(Thank you Jon)

L.E.D. Surfer

(via Casson)

Different Great First

(Via austinkleon.com)

Lullatone

Thanks to my studiomates Burks and Frank I discovered the wonderful and whimsical world of Lullatone! We’ve been playing their music all day yesterday at the studio. So zen.

Tidy Up Junk in Orbit

I am not surprised that the Swiss are behind the idea of Tidying Up Junk in Orbit. The Swiss are serious about cleanliness and order.

(Thank you Jared)

Skin Type

Skin Type by Bryan Stewart.

Playgroundology

A Google Alert has pointed me to a blog called Playgroundology, and I am fascinated. A blog entirely dedicated to the world of playgrounds? Yes, please! Being a parent of small children I spend an awful lot of time on them and often wonder how they could be improved. Whenever I am traveling to other countries I am amazed at the differences in playground planning and thinking.

The Woodland Discovery Playground looks like quite a magical place.


Swings that create music?

And I couldn’t help but laugh while watching the above clip of a an adventure playground scene in the British documentary Seven Up. I would have thought it’s more of a construction site, compared to sterile-cookie-cutter-über-safe NYC playgrounds.

And then of course, there’s the Playground Papa classic. Made me laugh:

So, if you are like me, interested in all things Playgrounds, make sure to check out Playgroundology.

Special-Effects Machine

“Aside from keeping the rain out and producing some usable space, architecture is nothing but a special-effects machine that delights and disturbs the senses.”
— Liz Diller

A quote taken from Liz Diller’s TED Talk.

Toca House

I had the honor to meet Toca Boca co-founder Björn Jeffery yesterday. If you have little children and don’t know about Toca Boca listen up: They make the most amazing, well designed and fun iPhone and iPad games for children. My kids (and myself) are obsessed with them. My favorite is the Toca Hair Salon. My son’s current favorite is the Toca Kitchen and my daughter can’t stop playing with the Toca Store.

During our meeting yesterday Björn gave me a sneak peek of their latest game Toca House which is supposed to be ready at the end of this month. It’s going to get the kids excited about cleaning! YES!

Congrats to the folks over at Toca Boca for having created a brand that I love and don’t think twice about downloading new apps.

My First Stacker

I have a few favorite kids toy brands and Green Toys is one of them. My two year old recently got to play with their stacking toy and loved it. Owning a few stackable, nesting toys already I was surprised in how smart this set is. No matter what pieces you put on top of each other they still stack. The colors are lovely and it’s made out of recycled plastic. What’s not to love?

Green Toys My First Stacker,$11.79 on Amazon

House of Butter

House of Butter? Yes!

Ceramic Vases

I love these simple, minimal ceramic vases designed by Shane Powers. Available west elm.

♥ / The Manual

A big thank you to The Manual for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed!

The Manual is a beautifully crafted journal with a focus on designing for the web and who we are as designers. The Manual is not about tutorials, tips, tricks or trends, but rather — through six illustrated articles and six personal lessons — aims to give a home to deeper explorations of our work through stories around the why of web design.

To date The Manual has published contributions from the likes of Frank Chimero, Liz Danzico, Mark Boulton, Karen McGrane, Ethan Marcotte, Duane King, Jeremy Keith, and more.

The Manual: the missing journal of web design.


(Interested in sponsoring a week of my RSS feed, learn more here.)

M Lamp

Starting february 29th you’ll be able to buy this M Lamp at the M-STARS store. Go MIGROS, this is way cool!

(For those of you that don’t know what MIGROS is: It’s one of the biggest Supermarket (and services beyond) chains in Switzerland. I grew up shopping at MIGROS and these fan-products make me smile.)

Playground

Don’t forget to play by Marc Johns. Get it as a Tattly.

DeskShell

Having not been my usual social self, I would not mind having one of these DeskShells for our studio. (but in red, of course) Designed by Kawamura Ganjavian.

Amit’s Story on CBS Boston

The amazing Amit Gupta is currently recovering from his recent bone marrow transplant. Love that CBS Boston featured his story on the news.

79 Short Essays on Design


Lucky me, I just got my hands on the latest issues of Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut. Michael is not only an incredibly talented designer but also able to so eloquently and humorously talk about his work.

(If you haven’t seen his CreativeMornings talk on Clients, you should take the time and watch it!)

An Ounce of Action

“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

(via Shopify Blog)

Disruptive Wonder

The wonderful and incredibly talented Kelli Anderson recently gave a talk at TEDxPhoenix. This morning, her talk went live for the world to see. Kelli is one of the most passionate, hardworking and thoughtful designers I know. Watch it!

Yes to the Idea of an Indoor Park

Today’s CreativeMornings/NewYork with Charles Renfro was generously hosted by Park Here, a gallery turned indoor park. It was packed and seriously fantastic. What a fun venue! A big giant thank you to the team at Open House Gallery for hosting us. Here’s a short video about the space and the idea behind it all:

Parke Here is only open for a few more days. They are starting to break it all down on the 15th, next week. If you’re in NYC, make sure to stop by asap.

ParkHere.info